Dressed in a leather jacket and pleated skirt, Parker was taken aback by the buzz in the room, which also included several newly elected Congresswomen.

"There are a few women [here] that I've known for a number of years and I'm a great admirer of," she told PEOPLE. "If they're powerful, that's just a byproduct. But I don't think of them that way. I just think of them as great women that I'm fortunate to know."

Westfeldt – who wrote and directed 2011's Friends with Kids – confessed that she power lunches "almost never."

"I'm a meal skipper, bagel on-the-run person," she said.

But as any power luncher knows, food is hardly the point.

As King put it, "I walk around this room and I feel good about being a girl."